Sometimes a journalist comes across someone who can give a different take on contracting. Stephen Quant, vice president employee and industrial relations at Skanska, is one such person. Paul Braithwaite discusses a different aspect of m&e work with him
STEPHEN QUANT is one of many people on the m&e scene who beaver away in the background of big companies such as Skanska UK. He is not part of the team which brings in the prestigious jobs. But his contribution is such that the front man is able to do his job with fewer problems.

For instance. there are two pieces of legislation which will soon be law in the UK, the EU Temporary Workers Directive and the EU Working Time Directive.

Quant explains: 'The Temporary Workers Directive has been plodding along for six or seven years.

'It is unlikely to become law until about 2010/11 but it is an issue. Further it will only affect items such as statutory sick pay or maternity pay. It will not affect occupational pay schemes or occupational pensions schemes.'

Having said this, Quant goes on: the devil will be in the detail.
'As many people will realise, what in one light could look like a labour-only sub-contractor might, in another, look like an labour agency.'

This detail could have a serious impact on the industry but until the draft legislation is published, probably in 2009,'I do not think any firm can make preparation for it'.

The British government has been under enormous pressure from its left-wing MPs and unions. Therefore, it has been working towards a tripartite agreement (government, the Confederation of British Industry and the trades union) which arrangement effectively gives agency workers equal pay with full-time workers after 12 weeks' service.

Necessary

Quant adds the tripartite agreement is necessary in the UK so government does not have to implement the EU agency legislation from day one of their employment, as it can say there is an existing plan in place.

'I think, to a degree, the EU has lost the plot on some staff positions. A large number of professional engineers would rather be paid as agency workers and receive all their pay rather than taking it in company cars and pensions.'

'Anyway, some of them will not be agency workers but rather independent contractors.'
Nevertheless, Quant believes this temporary worker agreement is basically good for the industry.
Further, he applauds the HVCA's initiative, the Building Standards Engineering Employment Agency Alliance, which is a voluntary grouping of employment agencies which supply skilled personnel to contractors.

To qualify for membership, an agency must be able to demonstrate its compliance with the recognised industry standards. (HVR May 08 p20)

'We need to ensure there is a reasonable treatment of the workers on our sites. And we need to have a control mechanism so that, where agency staff are used 'they are from an approved agency.'

'It is useful for us on two levels. First, when Skanska (and other main contractors) have to use agency workers (which it does not do very often). Further, these approved agencies are somewhere main contractors can send sub-contractors, knowing the workers will have the right SkillCards and have the right to work in the UK.'

Fines up to £10,000

He suspects that a number of sub-contractors do not know that, should they employ a person not allowed to work in the UK, they could face fines up to £10,000.

'The regulations came into effect on February 29 2008.'
And it is not just illegal immigrants.

'For some time now, big companies such as Skanska have been co-operating with police and immigration officials who have been looking for illegal immigrants. But now I suspect the enforcement is moving on to those workers who have failed to register on the Workers Registration Scheme within the required number of weeks after starting work.

'For anyone found without the right documents, the employer would be fined.'

On the second piece of legislation, the Working Time Directive, government, having given way to the unions on the temporary workers' issue, the unions have had to back off on the changes to the Working Time Directive which originally came into force in 1990.

This compromise means the standard maximum limit stays at 48 hours a week (over a 17-week reference period). And even if staff signs the opt-out, there will now be a maximum limit of 60 hours.

'Historically, there has to be an 11-hour break each day and one period of 24 hours off a week. This means staff can only work 13 hours for six days a week so the maximum anyone could have worked was 78 hours a week.

Now this is capped at 60 hours a week (but calculated over a three-month reference period).'
There is still an opt-out but historically it was signed as a person joined a company whereas now he or she cannot sign until they have been with the firm for more than four weeks.

Bureaucratic

Quant says it makes us a bit more bureaucratic than before but does not have much impact.
'Most employers are protective of record keeping as they need the records for the Revenue and this includes the hours worked.'

In fact, Quant says, most legislation of this nature - and initiatives such as the HVCA assessment scheme - is basically good for the industry. For big m&e firms like Skanska and its first-tier contractors, it will make little difference as they are already toeing the line. But further down the chain, it will put another barrier up for the rogue traders.

Thoughts of Skanska's Quant

On PFI

PFI means hospitals are not able to cut back on maintenance, suggests Stephen Quant. Until the Private Finance Initiative, when a new hospital was built, one of the first things that happened is that the maintenance was cut as soon as money got tight, he says. However, with PFI and the usual 25-year maintenance contract, “managers have to make cuts elsewhere”.

On Contracting

Quant’s five-point simple philosophy for building contractors. 1. The process of building must be safe for workers 2. The contractor needs to make a return 3. The sub-contractors need to make a return too (otherwise the lawyers get involved and then they are the only ones who make any money) 4. And the blokes need to make a a decent wage because, if they are not happy, the job will never be finished 5. We want a decent job for the client so that he is happy too.

On health and safety

THE business has come far since Quant was first involved. Take health and safety, for instance. When he first joined the industry, site boots were optional and most of the workers wore trainers. Hi-vis vests and hard hats were also optional.

Worker safety is paramount as far as he is concerned. But bad practice still goes on, he insists. “The solution is that the manager or supervisor must not walk on by.”

• When a worker comes to the site for the first time, he is consciously ignorant. He knows that he knows nothing. • On site he must be made to be consciously aware of what is going on. He must be told what is going on and what he must do. • The hard part is to push the worker to the next stage where he becomes unconsciously aware of what he must do to be safe.

“For example, getting up in the morning and deciding to make either a cup of tea or coffee is a conscious decision. The unconscious decision is to put clothes on before you go out of the house. I don’t know anyone who goes out of the house without clothes but it is not a conscious decision.”

And this is the way it should be with safety at work. It should be an unconscious decision. But he adds: “We cannot get people to behave like this. “Many accidents happen when workers try to take shortcuts or when they try to do something they cannot do.”

On the EU

THE European Union is basically good for UK plc. “And the free movement of workers is one of the most important parts of this and it is very beneficial for the UK.” In its basic form, it is about a number of countries coming together to allow free trade to take place.

And it is a credit to our country that we had the guts to welcome everyone in 2004. Only Britain and two other countries did this when the eight Eastern European counties joined the EU. Nevertheless, he would have voted against a constitution.

On Pensions

THE HVCA is about to start negotiations this year with UNITE over wages. Quant will be part of the HVCA team and this year he expects that the government’s new compulsory pension will be discussed.

“Ten years ago, Gordon Brown started to tax company pension schemes. At the time, he must have thought it was a good idea. But subsequent events have seen the good occupational schemes undermined by government action, and now it has been forced to bring in its own pension scheme,” he says. “However government must expect us to be sceptical about this proposal because of the history.”

Quant says the pension scheme will be virtually compulsory with an opt-out clause. So workers will be included in the scheme rather than having to join. He adds that there are many pension schemes in the m&e sector and probably these will comply (or will be upgraded to comply) so that they can be an alternative to the government scheme.

“Most importantly, the individual will have to pay towards the pension as will the employer and the government will contribute.” Quant says the individual will have to contribute 4%, the employer 3% and government 1%.

But he believes this will not have too much impact on the M&E sector where there is a high take up of pensions but other parts of the construction industry, such as the wet trades like plastering and painting, will see a massive change.